The Weed Lady Cougars hung on for a 42-37 victory over the Etna Lady Lions in the second round of the Northern Section playoffs Friday night.Etna was up 33-32 with 3:50 left in the game before Weed pulled away for the five-point win. Weed is the No. 2 Division 5 seed while fellow Shasta Cascade League member Etna came in as the No. 10 seed.With the victory, Weed hosts another SCL opponent, Mount Shasta, in the semifinals Tuesday night in Weed at 7 p.m., with the winner moving on to the Division 5 championships this Saturday in Chico.This is the first time since 1988 that the Lady Cougars have made it to the NSCIF semifinals, head coach Bob West said."It's new ground for us," he said. "We're trying to build something here for years to come."The game started out with both teams trying to find a flow as the scoring did not begin until Elyssa Fisher of Weed made two free throws with 5:05 left in the quarter. Etna struggled to find an offensive rhythm and scored only a single basket in the quarter and found themselves down 11-2 after one quarter of play,In the second quarter, the Lions slowly came back. Near the end of the quarter senior post player Sara Hoyt made a nice move inside, scored, was fouled, and made the free throw for a three-point play, as the Lions trailed 19-12 at the half.The Lions were far from out of it and reduced the Cougar lead to 19-17 early in the second half. With a little more than two minutes left in the third quarter, the Lions Hannah Little made a basket to tie things up at 25-25. A short time later Hoyt scored to give the Lions a 27-25 advantage.With three second left in the quarter, Fisher was fouled while attempting a three-pointer. She drained all three shotss to give the Cougars the 28-27 advantage to end the third quarter.In the fourth, while Etna had a few leads, the Cougars regained the lead with clutch free throw shooting as the Cougars sealed the deal and came away with the five-point victory.The Lady Cougars received a warm round of applause from the home fans as they celebrated after the win.Fisher and Karene Marshall each had 12 points for the Cougars and Destinee Jones had 11 points. Hoyt led Lion scorers with 15, while Jessie Eiler and Hannah Little each finished with nine points."They battled and worked hard," West said about his squad.He added that the way his team was able to pressure Etna, especially in the fourth quarter, and create turnovers turned out to be a key difference in the game.Etna head coach Les Helsley commended his squad for the way they battled against the Cougars and nearly pulled off the upset against a team they had previously lost to twice this season.A key to the loss, he said,, was the way the Lady Cougars were able to capitalize on free throw opportunities and having three Lions foul out certainly did not help, Helsley said.Helsley said that he was very proud of the way his team played this season."It was a lot of fun this season," he said. "It was a great group of kids."Weed improved to 20-8 this season, while Etna finished at 12-11.